A ray of sunlight can be broken
by writer-in-progress
Summary: April 24th brings sad memories back to Modo, but it also brings happiness. a modo romance


It was a beautiful April day. The sun was shining brightly, warming the earth with her gentle caress, and a light breeze was blowing countering the heat and making it just the perfect temperature for the day.

"Ouch!"

Charlie looked up from working on Vinnies red motorcycle to its owner, who had just fallen off the chair he'd been sitting on. She smiled as Throttle innocently retracted his tail from the leg of Vinnies chair. The mouse, lying in a heap on the floor, glared up at Throttle. It was about time Throttle got Vinnie back; he'd been pulling pranks on the tan mouse all month. She shook her head. Vinnie didn't seem to realize that Aprils fools day was only for one day. Not the whole month! Charlie's gaze shifted to Modo sitting, staring at something he was rolling around in his large flesh and metal fingers. He looked a million miles away.

Charlie stood up wiping her hands on a rag and walking over to Modo. She said his name a couple times. When he didn't respond she reached out a hand to shake his shoulder, but before she could reach him, tan furred fingers wrapped around her wrist stopping its motion.

"Leave him alone Charlie girl" Throttles voice held an edge of seriousness that was hard to argue with.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Its April 24th babe just give him his space" Vinnie didn't quite answer her question, but Charlie could see the mice weren't going to tell her anything. With one last glance at Modo she went back to work.

 April 24th… April 24th. The date echoed through Modos head and he remembered… 

"EEEEEYOOOOEW" Vinnie yelled at the top of his lungs, as he sailed over the heads of the Plutarkians latest thugs, large salamander shaped creatures, covered in feathers, with long claws and sharp teeth. But Modos attention wasn't on Vinnie; it was concentrated on the female mouse, driving headlong into the very middle of the fray, firing rapidly her face expressionless. No one could ever tell what Ray was thinking from one second to the next. Her face never showed anything. No one even knew her real name, all they knew is that they found her in the middle of the dessert, without a scratch on her, without any food or weapons, and walking along as if she was out for a morning stroll. She refused to sleep in any shelters, preferring her one small blanket and pillowing her head with her arms when she lay on the cold Martian sand. It was pure stupidity no matter what way you looked at it. The temperature drooped to just above freezing at night and everyone kept expecting her to just not wake up one morning. But sure enough not only did she wake up, but she woke up over an hour before everyone else and started helping out in the kitchen, preparing the morning meal. The girl was just too damn stubborn to die. She'd taken hits that would have downed the toughest of Martian males and never flinched. It was rumored that she couldn't feel pain, but Modo knew better, as she'd told him when he asked, she felt pain she just passed it off as inconsequential and ignored it. She went about the base putting more work in one day, from lifting heavy objects, to planning strategies of attack, to the most menial of tasks like scrubbing dishes and floors after meals, than most would put into a week. Modo didn't think he'd ever seen her sitting still and just relaxing. Modo was jerked back to reality as Ray pulled up beside him shooting a feathered attacker who would have taken the distracted Martians head off.

"Watch your back big guy if I lost you who'd be my big teddy bear?" her voice was joking and filled with genuine fondness, but as usual the emotion never made it past her voice. It was sometimes strange talking to her she could pour so much caring into her voice without her facial expressions ever changing from her usual blank look. He smiled at her.

"I'm sure anyone would love to be the teddy bear of a pretty girl like you Ray ma'am"

"Modo formalities are unnecessary between friends. If you don't call me by my name one more time I swear I'll blow your head off" During the course of this conversation they had never stopped riding, and she hadn't stopped firing from one millisecond to the next. But in order to accent her comment, she pointed the gun at his head for a couple of seconds, before giving her gun an extra charge and blowing the head right off an unlucky opponents shoulders, as they rode by.

"Point taken Ray…" he paused for a second, making it obvious he was going to say something else. She eyed him suspiciously, fully prepared to clonk him over the back of the head when they got back if he dared to say ma'am. 

"Sweetheart" he finished. She couldn't help but laugh, it wasn't very often Modo was cheeky.

"Well much as I'd love to stick around I've got some scum to ground into the dirt" With that she tore off, tail whipping out behind her. She drove right up the side off a cliff, switching direction at the last moment, and sailing through the air, landing in the very centre of enemy troops. She pulled her bike into a wheelie and jerked her hips bringing it into a spin. Modo had seen her pull this trick before and knew she could stay on one wheel spinning all day if she needed to. Ray was probably the best fighter any of them would ever see, wherever she'd learned to ride a bike she'd learned it well. She pulled another gun out of her belt, and began firing with both hands to either side of her, while continuing to spin. One of the feathered lizards, that she had come to call Feaths, managed to get past her guns and dart towards, what it thought was her unexposed back. What was it stupid?! She was a mouse for petes sake! Her tail whipped him in the face, carefully aimed so that the tip skimmed its eyes. By the time it recovered enough to glance up through bleary eyes, her spin had brought her gun level with its head, and all it saw was a bright flash. Then it wasn't seeing anything.

*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

            They tore back into base, skidding to a halt in their usual Freedom Fighter style. They dismounted, most of them looking weary and tired, with only two exceptions. Ray looked like she hadn't done anything more tiring then sitting around base all day. She was standing up tall and straight well the rest off them slumped tiredly against their bikes, just wanting to get something to eat and go to sleep, and as for the other one…   

            "All right!  I rule! I'm the baddest mamajamma around! We kicked those Feather heads to the other side of mars!" well…Vinnie was his usual ball of egotistical energy. Some of the freedom fighters shook their heads at him, but most just ignored the energetic teenager who was new to their ranks. Throttle threw his arm around Vinnies shoulder and Modo automatically fell in beside his two friends.

            "You know Vinnie one of these days your ego is going to get you into trouble" Throttle had almost immediately taken to the white furred mouse, and even though Vinnie had only been there a week, you could have sworn they'd been friends forever.

            "So not. I'm indestructible bro" they both knew Vinnie didn't actually believe that, it was just his way of coping with the loss of his family. He didn't talk about it and they didn't ask. Modos eyes fell on Ray again walking towards the mess hall by herself. He didn't think he'd ever seen her with anyone, actually now that he thought about it he'd never seen her talking to anyone either. At least not before he'd approached her two days ago and that was just him. Sure she'd take orders or she'd help plan an attack, but that wasn't talking not really. Maybe that's why she'd sounded so surprised when he'd talked to her and then so happy. In fact it seemed she loved to talk. Once you got her started it was impossible to shut her up…not that he minded she sounded so happy, like every word that came from her lips was pure pleasure and she hung on his every word as well. She waited patiently for her turn and as far as he could tell, didn't really care if it ever came jut as long as you were still there talking to her. The only thing that must have kept her from talking is that no one had ever talked to her. It made Modo glad he had. 

            A small child stood on the side of the dirt road, reaching up to the Freedom fighters passing. Some looked at the child, a few even patted him on the head as they passed, but most were to tired to acknowledge the boy. Ray didn't even look at the child and in what appeared to be a completely unconscious act, scooped the kid up with one arm and swung him onto her shoulders. The little brown mouse giggled insanely causing her to break into a light jog, in order to amuse the little guy. He laughed even harder throwing his arms up and yelling wwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeee as loud as his little lungs could. Suddenly in what she made appear a graceful motion, she bent her right knee out to the right until her butt was only about a cm from her heel and stuck her left leg straight out to the left, pointing her toe so that it dragged in the dirt as she did a complete 180 degree turn. When she finished she went right into a roll led by her hip, keeping her upper body as far away from the ground as possible. When she completed the roll, she took her completely unharmed and thrilled passenger and tossed him up and down a couple times, before placing him back on the same side of the road she'd scooped him up from and patted him on the head. She continued walking towards the mess hall like nothing had ever happened.

            "Wow what was that about?" Vinnie asked a bit shocked.

            "She likes kids" Modo said with a shrug.

            "Oh"

*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

            The mess hall was… a _little noisy_ to put it mildly. Dishes crashed, clattered and banged and quite honestly, there were probably about only ten quiet people in total.

            "Hey Modo why don't you just tell her"

            "Tell her what?" Throttle just looked at him until he lowered his eyes back to his drink and shrugged.

            "I don't know. I mean what am I going to say bro? Hi Ray how do you feel today? Oh that's good. By the way you know how I've only known you for two days? Well I've fallen in love with you so would you like to go on a date sometime?" Modo sighed again, looking up from his cup at her sitting quietly by herself.

            "You know bro when it comes to women your hopeless. Why don't you start by inviting her to sit with us? And hurry up and do it before Vinnie gets back or you'll never here the end of it"

            "I hear you bro… and Throttle?"

            "Ya Modo"

            "Thanks bro"

          "Anytime big guy" Modo stood up and pushed his chair in, walking around to the other side of the table. He stopped suddenly, hesitating when she looked up at him. He waved and she returned the gesture, before looking back at her food. Modo looked around the room making sure no one was paying attention to him and met Stokers eyes watching him curiously. Modo froze like a deer in headlights and Stoker raised an eyebrow and smiled before looking away. Mod sighed so much for not being noticed. He made his way over to her table and stood beside her. She looked up having heard him approach. 

            "Hey Modo how are things going?" she asked happily. Modo almost laughed. How was it even possible for someone to sound so perky in the middle of a war?

            "I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to join the guys and I for lunch" he said with a smile and extended his hand to her. Her eyes lit up so brightly they almost blinded poor Modo, who was completely shocked at the sight of her eyes being anything but expressionless. He'd seen her around the base for five years now without the slightest expression. Even though the rest of her face didn't change, the black mouse sitting in front of him was suddenly the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Black mice had always been scarce. Black mice with white hair were rare enough to only show up once or twice every couple millennia. Now green eyes are rare on their own, but place them in the face of a black mouse with white hair and you've got something so rare as to be questioned to exist at all. So she'd always been exotic no matter what way you looked at her, but sitting there with her hair cropped to her chin and some of her bangs slightly covering, her now glowing green eyes, was enough to make Modo weak in the knees like a preteen after his first kiss.

            "Oh Modo I'd love to" and then she was in his arms hugging him. He hugged her back, taking in her sweet scent allowing himself to fall into it. She'd hugged him more times in the past two days she'd known him, then he'd been hugged by anyone else in his life. She'd even taken to calling him her big teddy bear. Modo stopped the hug, suddenly feeling guilty that he'd been standing there inhaling her scent when she was just giving him an innocent gesture of sisterly affection.

            "Come on I've got some friends I'd like you to meet" she walked along side him to the table he indicated with his hand. She seated herself across from Throttle and extended her hand to him, after placing her food in front of herself. 

            "Hi I'm Ray! Or at least that's what everyone calls me. You must be Throttle I've heard so much about you and I'm so excited to meet you. Can you tell?" Throttle stared at her for a second, shocked that the energetic babble was coming from such an expressionless face. Then he laughed finally computing what she'd actually said.

            "Believe me babe the pleasures all mine and yes it's quite obvious you're excited"

            "Really it is? You can tell I'm excited?" her voice sounded strained almost like she was pleading

            "Oh yeah you couldn't be more excited if you were bouncing in your seat"         

            "Thank you" her voice was suddenly quiet and Throttle had the feeling he'd given her a great gift, but he wasn't quite sure what he'd done. He looked at Modo questioningly.

            "Most people can't tell what she's feeling because of her facial expressions"

            "Facial expressions? No way the babe's face never changes it might as well be carved from stone" Modo glared at Vinnie and Throttle gave him a hard look, but what surprised them was Rays reaction.

            "You must be Vinnie I'm pleased to meet you" she extended her hand as she had done for Throttle though her voice held no excitement in it only polite courtesy. She knew Vinnie didn't realize what he'd said would hurt her, he'd just picked up on what Modo said and as usua,l said the wrong thing at the wrong time. She wasn't going to judge him for that, she knew very well from what she'd heard and seen about him that he was actually a very caring and loyal friend, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Just as Vinnie was about to accept her hand with a flirtatious grin Stoker came up to the table and turned to Throttle.

            "There's an emergency you'd better come" He turned to look at Ray 

            "You to we'll need your mechanical advice" 

            "But the only thing I've ever worked with is the heating core"

            "Exactly" with that Stoker turned away obviously expecting to be followed. He was. Vinnie and Modo hadn't even asked to come, but they did anyway. The five mice arrived outside the room that held the heating core, that kept them all from freezing at night. Stoker pointed at the glass wall that constructed part of the room and allowed those outside to see the heating core.

            "There's nothing wrong with it" Ray sounded confused. 

            "The thalem casing cracked allowing the chemical to leak out"

            "Thalems harmless" Ray pointed out. Stoker looked at her.

            "It was in this case as well until Carbine got mad and shattered the casing holding the paleoclorinite"

            "That's harmless too"

            "Chemicals isn't your department is it Ray?" she shook her head.

            "That's why Throttles here he majored in chemistry. We need his opinion to" Throttle turned to Ray.

            "The combination of those two chemicals is lethal. They're a necessary part of the heating core and usually not dangerous because the casings are hard to break, in order for Carbine to be able to break the casing let alone shatter it is little short of a miracle" Ray shook her head.

            "That metal has been wearing down for some time. I put it on the replacement list a week ago, but I still don't see the problem"

            "Hey sweetheart if it's poisonous it means no one can go in there right?"

            "I'm guessing as much Vinnie"

            "Then how you gonna fix it before it explodes?"  They all looked at Vinnie questioningly.

            "What makes you think its going to explode Vinnie?" Throttle looked perplexed.            

"Well bro's the paleoclorinite is what keeps the reactor cool." They all looked at each other realization dawning on them. When the reactor turned on in less then fifteen minutes there was going to be an explosion big enough to blow up the entire base. Ray turned to Stoker.

            "Is there any replacement paleoclorinite on base?" Stoker nodded pointing to a large box on the desk in the room.

            "All the replacement pieces you asked for a week ago arrived today, but I don't know what good they're going to do you, the poison goes through everything but glass and if it even touches your skin your dead"

"How long does it take the poison to kill you?"

            "I'm not a chemist ask Throttle" Stoker sounded irritated, considering he was facing evacuating the whole base, in less then fifteen minutes it was hard to blame him. She turned to Throttle expectantly. 

            "Five minutes maybe six, but the effects are irreversible, whoever goes in there may come back out, but they won't live for long. It's also very painful it attacks the white blood cells. I doubt they'd stay conscious for more than a minute" Ray nodded and turned to the box taking out two small parts and picked up a tool box.

            "What are you doing Ray?" Modo had concern written all over his face.

            "This is the replacement paleoclorinite and thalem I asked for. Like I said I noticed that the casings were weakening and you can't just replace the casings you have to replace the whole part. The repairs should only take four minutes. That leaves an extra minute before I'm dead" Modo grabbed her by the arms.

            "I can't let you go in there you're going to get hurt and I don't want you getting hurt" She hugged him like her life depended on it.

            "Oh my big teddy bear we all knew the risks when we joined and who else is going to do it? The only other person on Base who knows how to replace those parts is Cauley and she has three kids and a dying husband to worry about. I'm sorry I was just starting to find a reason to live again too." She let him go stepping back to wipe the tears from his eyes her face as usual was expressionless. She picked the toolbox back up and with a nod to the rest of them walked into the reactor room. Modo was left standing with his arms empty, wondering if there was anything he could care about that would not be snatched away.

*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

            Exactly four minutes and thirty seconds later she walked back out looking at all of them.

 "Well fancy that I have thirty seconds left and I just saved the whole base. What more could a girl want?" Modo looked at her, knowing this would probably be the last time he'd ever see her and found he couldn't say a word.

"Why the long face Modo? I'm not dead yet. Why not enjoy the time we still have?" She walked over to him standing directly in front of him. Removing a ring with a blue stone carved into the shape of one of mars rare flowers she placed it in his hand.

"It was my sisters she gave it to me before she died." Modo looked at her unsure of what to say. So she spoke instead.

"Ok don't even think about looking sad or I'll beat you to a bloody pulp. You really think I want you to be crying over me? Of course not! I want you to be happy, perky the whole shebang and go on with your life you here me?" Modo opened his mouth to speak

"I...I..." but before he could get out whatever it was he was trying to say she cut him off.

"Now if you even think about ruining our last seconds together with that treat ladies with respect bullcrap I'm gonna kick you in the tail so hard you won't be able to sit for a month cause I'm gonna do what I've wanted to do for a while and I don't give a rats ass if it bothers you cause I'm dead anyway" Modo stared in shock at her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Modos first thought was to pull her off of him and be the gentleman, but after a few seconds he realized these were his last moments with the woman he loved. It was Rays turn to be surprised when Modos tongue gently caressed her lips begging for entrance, but she gladly granted it to him. She was once more surprised when his tongue darted aggressively into her mouth filled with passion. She moaned with pleasure pressing herself into him as their tongues danced. Modo's hands slid up and down her back slipping under her shirt to explore her fur covered spine. She kept one hand at his neck while the other slipped down his already bare back and playfully toyed with the top of his pants. Neither really cared that they weren't alone. Modo pulled up for air looking down at Ray who for once was anything but expressionless. She licked her lips and grinned broadly up at him her eyes holding a mischievous twinkle. 

"Imagine my surprise when the guy I'd had a crush on for two months came up and talked to me?" Modo looked down at her he really didn't care that she'd liked him two months ago, what was important was that she liked him now and she was going to die.

"I love you" He could feel tears rising, but she leaned up and kissed him gently on the lips.

"I love you to Modo so don't even think of crying. Now my thirty seconds is more than up, but I'm still standing and very much alive so why don't we use what time we have to get better acquainted?" she said while smiling suggestively at him. 

"What do you have in mind?" Modo asked grinning back at her. Vinnie made a coughing sound and Ray and Modo turned to give him identical glares. Then Rays glare turned into a grin.

"Why don't we get out of Mr. Van Whams way? We can't exactly get rid of my tiresome virginity standing here now can we? So why don't we move to your quarters?" Modo started choking and the other males in the room found somewhere else to look, the floor, walls, and ceiling seemed to have become major attractions all of a sudden. Ray pulled Modo out of the room with the dopiest grin on his face.

"It doesn't make sense she should be dead" Throttle said shaking his head. Stoker looked at the two other mice.

"Always was to stubborn to die"  

She died exactly six hours thirty-two minutes and fifty-two seconds later on April 24th, but she got her night with Modo.

Modo sat starring at the ring he was holding in his hands. He'd lost so much his wife, his children, friends, and then Ray. What was the point? Suddenly her voice rang through his head.

_"Ok don't even think about looking sad or I'll beat you to a bloody pulp. You really think I want you to be crying over me? Of course not! I want you to be happy, perky the whole shebang and go on with your life you here me?"_  One of the last things she ever said to him. It was like she was reaching up from the past to berate him for being gloomy. He smiled and placed the ring back in his pocket.

"Hey bro's lets say we go give Limburger a hard time?"

**_THE END_**


End file.
